A.A.C. Puryear STAFF WRITER

Sorry about the corny series of rhymes in my title. It’s just me channeling my inner albino hip-hop MC, something for which I once was mistaken. Granted, my friend had good reason; it was in response to my profile picture on Facebook at the time, which is currently displayed next to this text.

So why did I bring this up? Because this is the kind of goofy humor you would see on the Emmy Award-winning TV show Scrubs, which will open its epic 8th season on ABC when January 6 rolls around.

Why watch? Well, for starters, the concept to the show is quite unique. It’s a comedy that takes place in a hospital. To give you a little taste, take a look at this preview.

What you just saw is a classic daydream from Zach Braff’s character Dr. John Dorian, known better as J.D. These have permeated throughout the course of the show and provided a good bit of the humor, along with crazy antics such as surfing on gurneys (portable hospital beds), deciding on-call shifts by racing through the halls with bed pans on one’s feet, and even taking a defibrillator to the head (as just seen), that we all know would never take place in an actual hospital.

And when the laughs aren’t coming from the ridiculous situations taking place, they’re coming from the cast of characters. In addition to the quirky J.D., you have his best friend Chris Turk (Donald Faison), a cocky black surgeon, and his mentor Dr. Perry Cox (John C. McGinley), a man who usually appears quite angry with the world and usually goes on long sarcastic witty rants to display this anger. There’s also a Janitor (played by Neil Flynn), who spends his time playing elaborate pranks on J.D. because he believed that the young doctor purposefully sabotaged a door with a penny. That’s just a few.

However, despite all the ridiculousness and goofiness that occurs on Scrubs, the show acknowledges its depth by remembering the fact that it indeed takes place in a hospital. We see the characters routinely deal with sick patients and learn to cope with the deaths that take place under their care. It’s in these moments that we get to see the hearts and souls of these people and see how having a career in the medical profession affects them personally and changes their lives.

Which brings me to another thing I love about the show: how the characters grow over the course of the series. After being on the air for seven years, we have seen J.D. go from a nervous intern fresh out of medical school to a doctor with the experience and more of a dose maturity while still being the quirky character fans love. Turk settles down from his cocky, womanizing persona to marry the nurse Carla Espinosa (played by Judy Reyes) and start a family with her. Another character Elliot Reid (Sarah Chalke) overcomes her insecurities about being a woman in typically male field and becomes a strong, confident doctor in the process. Even the angry Dr. Cox manages gives up his easy living as a single doctor to raise two kids with his ex-wife, with whom he reenters a cohabiting relationship.

But what honestly makes this eighth season really interesting is the network change. For the past seven years, Scrubs has been on NBC and was slated to end with its seventh season, hoping to resolve the on-and-off romance between J.D. and Elliot. However, the writer’s strike took place, thus robbing producer and creator Bill Lawrence enough episodes to end the series as he would have liked. So he managed to make the switch to ABC and now Scrubs is on for at least one more year.

And they’ve already made some interesting changes. For one, Ken Jenkins’ character Dr Kelso, the Chief of Medicine who retired in the show last spring, appears to be gone and replaced by a new character played by Courtney Cox. I’ve only really seen in her in Friends, so I can’t be certain how this will go down. However, from the above preview, I imagine it will be pretty funny.

And if the show continues to its ninth season, it will certainly be doing even more casting switches. Lawrence mentioned in an article from Forbes.com last summer that he has always hoped the show could be like a comedic ER, in the sense that the show would have an ever changing cast with new actors and actresses coming whenever old ones chose to move on. This hasn’t been the case with show thus far: over the show’s life, they’ve had the same seven season regulars, only killed off one minor recurring character, and brought on a mere two additional minor recurring characters. However, with a new network come new possibilities. This possible trend may have started with Ken Jenkins being swapped out for Courtney Cox, and ABC producers say they’d be willing to see the show continue past this coming year.

Personally, I think it would be really cool to see this show bring in new characters as old ones chose to leave, which we might see soon, since Zach Braff has already declared that this season will be his last. While fans may find it hard to imagine Scrubs without him since he’s also narrated the show for the entirety of the series, I seem to think it could work. There have been episodes in the past where J.D. hands off the narration to another character, so as he bids goodbye in the season finale this spring, he could easily pass this duty on to someone else. Would it change Scrubs a bit from the way it has been? Yes, of course, but so is the fact that it’s on a different channel: the channel that airs LOST. I think Scrubs is in good hands.

Never watched Scrubs and think you might be interested? Select episodes are available on abc.com, seasons 5 through 7 can be bought on iTunes, and all seasons thus far are on DVD. Also, you won’t lose too much by just tuning in for the first time on January 6. Like I said, with a new network come new possibilities.